This summer, City Council considered authorizing a greenhouse gas emissions inventory to estimate the emissions of greenhouse gases associated with businesses, residences, commuters and other factors.
What are greenhouse gases?
According to the U.S. EPA, gases that trap heat in the atmosphere are called greenhouse gases. They include:
- Carbon dioxide (CO2): Carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil), solid waste, trees and other biological materials, and also as a result of certain chemical reactions (e.g., cement production). Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere (or “sequestered”) when it is absorbed by plants as part of the biological carbon cycle.
- Methane (CH4): Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from livestock and other agricultural practices, land use, and by the decay of organic waste in municipal solid waste landfills.
- Nitrous oxide (N2O): Nitrous oxide is emitted during agricultural, land use, and industrial activities; combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste; as well as during treatment of wastewater.
- Fluorinated gases: Hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride are synthetic, powerful greenhouse gases that are emitted from a variety of household, commercial, and industrial applications and processes. Fluorinated gases are typically emitted in smaller quantities than other greenhouse gases, but they are potent greenhouse gases. With global warming potentials (GWPs) that typically range from thousands to tens of thousands, they are sometimes referred to as high-GWP gases because, for a given amount of mass, they trap substantially more heat than CO2.
Below is a link to the EPA website on greenhouse gases.
Overview of Greenhouse Gases | US EPA
A greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory is an aggregation of heat trapping and releasing gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous dioxide, emitted to or removed from the atmosphere over a specified period of time. The GHG inventory provides a detailed account of the activities from various emission sectors that have been identified through climate science as being contributors to the release or removal of greenhouse gases.
Such analyses allow for accurate monitoring of the affects that mitigation policies and implemented actions are having on reducing emission levels in high emission producing sectors throughout the community.
The League of Women Voters of Hudson, which has been studying climate and sustainability for several years, has held numerous workshops and sessions on the need to develop a Climate Action Plan. Below is a link to the LWV Climate Change Summit in September, 2023:
https://app.hudsoncommunity.tv/864514332
Members of the League’s Climate Crisis and Environmental Sustainability work group and the city’s Environmental Awareness Committee spoke at Council meetings regarding the need for an emissions study.
Council discussed the study at its June 20 meeting and workshop. The pertinent section begins at 2:17.
Below is the link to the video.
Following its discussion, council appointed a three-member subcommittee to review the issue.
At the subcommittee meeting on August 16, two of the three members agreed to recommend to Council that no greenhouse gas inventory be done at this time and the Environmental Awareness Committee be encouraged to educate the public about the issues.
Letters of support from the League and EAC submitted to the subcommittee can be viewed from links on the August 16 meeting agenda.